As President and Commander
in Chief, my highest priority is the security of the American people.
And on a regular basis, I convene members of my national security team
for an in-depth review of our efforts to prevent terrorist attacks
against our citizens -- around the world and here at home. We examine
any known and emerging threats. We review our security posture and we
make sure that we’re taking every necessary measure to protect our
people.

Today, I wanted to hold
our meeting here -- rather than in the
Situation Room at the White House, I
wanted to hold it at the National Counterterrorism Center
because this is the hub of where so many of our experts and efforts come
together. And I want to thank our Director of National Intelligence
Clapper, Jim Clapper, as well as NCTC Director Nick Rasmussen, and
everybody at NCTC -- all of you -- for welcoming us here today.

Now, Nick, along with CIA
Director Brennan and FBI Director Comey, provided a threat briefing.
And Director Comey and Attorney General Lynch updated us on the
investigation into the San Bernardino attacks. I reiterated that the
investigation will continue to have the full support of the federal
government and that we should leave no stone unturned in determining why
and how these terrorists carried out that tragedy. Secretary of
Homeland Security Johnson updated us on the measures we’re taking here
at home to increase awareness, stay vigilant, and enhance the safety of
the traveling public, especially with so many Americans traveling during
the holidays.

After the terrorist
attacks in Paris and San Bernardino, I know that a lot of Americans were
anxious. And that’s understandable. It’s natural. What matters most
to all of us are our friends and our families and our communities and
their safety. That's true of folks inside of government as well as
outside of government. But here’s what I want every American to know.
Since 9/11, we’ve taken extraordinary steps to strengthen our homeland
security -- our borders, our ports, our airports, our aviation security,
including enhanced watch lists and screening. And we’ve gotten much
better -- thanks in part to the people in this room -- of preventing
large, complex attacks like 9/11.

Moreover -- and I think
everybody here will agree -- we have the very best intelligence,
counterterrorism, homeland security and law enforcement professionals in
the world. Our folks are the best. Across our government, these
dedicated professionals, including here at NCTC, are relentless, 24
hours a day, 365 days a year. At the operations center here, people
from across our government work, literally shoulder-to-shoulder, pouring
over the latest information, analyzing it, integrating it, connecting
the dots. They’re sharing information -- pushing it out across the
federal government and, just as importantly, to our state and local
partners. In other words, what you see here today is one, strong,
united team.

So our professionals have
a remarkable record of success. Of course, when terrorists pull off a
despicable act like what happened in San Bernardino it tears at our
hearts. But it also stiffens our resolve to learn whatever lessons we
can and to make any improvements that are needed. In the meantime, what
the world doesn’t always see are the successes -- those terrorist plots
that have been prevented. And that’s how it should be. This work
oftentimes demands secrecy. But as Americans, we should not forget how
good these patriots are. Over the years, they have taken countless
terrorists off the battlefield. They have disrupted plots. They’ve
thwarted attacks. They have saved American lives.

And so, for everybody who
is involved in our counterterrorism efforts, I want to say thank you,
and the American people thank you.

I want to repeat what my
team just told me. At this moment, our intelligence and
counterterrorism professionals do not have any specific and credible
information about an attack on the homeland. That said, we have to be
vigilant. As I indicated in
my address to the nation last week, we
are in a new phase of terrorism, including lone actors and small groups
of terrorists, like those in San Bernardino. Because they are smaller,
often self-initiating, self-motivating, they’re harder to detect, and
that makes it harder to prevent.

But just as the threat
evolves, so do we. We’re constantly adapting, constantly improving,
upping our game, getting better. And today, the mission to protect our
homeland goes on, on three main fronts.

First, we’re going after
terrorists over there, where they plot and plan and spew their
propaganda. As I described at the Pentagon, we’re hitting ISIL harder
than ever in Syria and Iraq. We are taking out their leaders. Our
partners on the ground are fighting to push ISIL back, and ISIL has been
losing territory.

Our Special Operations
Forces are hard at work. We took out the ISIL leader in Libya. We’ve
taken out terrorists in Yemen and Somalia. So we're sending a message:
If you target Americans, you will have no safe haven. We will find
you, and we will defend our nation.

Meanwhile, as always,
we're working to protect Americans overseas -- including our military
bases and servicemembers. And Secretary John Kerry updated us on
security at our embassies and our diplomatic posts.

Second, we continue to do
everything in our power to prevent terrorists from getting into the
United States. We're doing more with countries around the world,
including our European partners, to prevent the flow of foreign
terrorist fighters -- both to places like Syria and Iraq, and back into
our countries.

We're implementing
additional layers of security for visitors who come here under the
Visa Waiver Program and we're working
with Congress to make further improvements. Any refugee coming to the
United States -- some of them victims of terrorism themselves -- will
continue to get the most intensive scrutiny of any arrival. They go
through up to two years of vetting, including biometric screening. And
the review that I ordered into the fiancé visa program, under which the
female terrorist in San Bernardino came here, is ongoing.

Third, we're stepping up
our efforts to prevent attacks here at home. As I said, the NCTC is
constantly sharing information with our state and local partners.
Across the country more than 100 joint terrorism task forces are the
action arm of this fight -- federal, state, and local experts all
working together to disrupt threats. At the state level, fusion cells
are receiving tips and pushing information out to local law enforcement.
Just yesterday the Department of Homeland Security updated its alert
system to make sure Americans are getting the most timely and useful
information.

And with groups like ISIL
trying to radicalize people to violence, especially online, part of our
meeting today focused on how we can continue to strengthen our
partnership between law enforcement, high-tech leaders, communities,
faith leaders, and citizens. We’ve got to keep on building up trust and
cooperation that helps communities inoculate themselves from the kind of
propaganda that ISIL is spewing out, preventing their loved ones --
especially young people -- from succumbing to terrorist ideologies in
the first place.

And finally, one of our
greatest weapons against terrorism is our own strength and resilience as
a people. That means staying vigilant -- if you see something
suspicious, say something to law enforcement. It also means staying
united as one American family -- remembering that our greatest allies in
this fight are each other, Americans of all faiths and all backgrounds.
And when Americans stand together, nothing can beat us.

Most of all, we cannot
give in to fear, or change how we live our lives, because that's what
terrorists want. That's the only leverage that they have. They can't
defeat us on a battlefield, but they can lead us to change in ways that
would undermine what this country is all about. And that's what we have
to guard against. We have to remind ourselves that when we stay true to
our values, nothing can beat us.

So anyone trying to harm
Americans need to know -- they need to know that we're strong and that
we're resilient, that we will not be terrorized. We’ve prevailed over
much greater threats than this. We will prevail again.

So I want to once again
thank all of you at NCTC and every one of your home agencies across our
entire government for your extraordinary service. I want every American
to know -- as you go about the holidays, as you travel and gather with
family, and the kids open their presents, and as you ring in the New
Year -- that you've got dedicated patriots working around the clock all
across the country to protect us all. Oftentimes they're doing so by
sacrificing their own holidays and their own time with families. But
they care about this deeply. And they're the best in the world. And
for that, we're very grateful.